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by a stone of red speckled marble, which hangs in two mortices, like the leaf of a sluice, between two walls, more than 3 feet above the pavement, and wanting 2 of the roof. Out of this closet we enter another square hole, over which are five lines cut, perpendicular and parallel, in this manner, II || I. Besides these, I have not observed any sculptures or engravings in the whole Pyramid; and therefore it may be justly wondered whence the Arabians borrowed those vain traditions I have before related, that all sciences are inscribed within in hieroglyphics. This square passage is of the same wideness and dimensions as the rest, and is in length near 9 feet, being all of Thebaic marble, most exquisitely cut, which lands us at the north end of a very sumptuous and well-proportioned room. The distance from the end of the second gallery to this entry, running upon the same level, is 24 feet. This rich and spacious chamber, in which art may seem to have contended with nature, stands in the heart of the Pyramid, equidistant from all the angles, and almost in the midst between the basis and the top. From the top of it, descending to the bottom, there are but six ranges of stone, all respectively sized to an equal height, very gracefully, in one and the same attitude. The stones which cover this place are of a strange and stupendous length, like so many huge beams lyeing flat and traversing the room. Of these there are nine which cover the roof; two of them are less by half in breadth than the rest, the one at the East end, the other at the West. The length of this chamber on the south side, most accurately taken at the joint or line where the first and second row of stones meet, is 34,380 feet, the breadth of the West side, where the first and second row of stones meet, is 17-120. The height is 19 feet. Within this glorious room as within some consecrated oratory, stands the monument of Cheops, of one piece of marble, hollow within, uncovered at top, and sounding like a bell. The figure of this tomb without is like AN ALTAR, or more nearly to express it, like Two CUBES finely set together, and hollowed within. It is cut smooth and plain, without any sculpture or engraving. The exterior superficies contains in length 7 feet 3 inches. In depth it is 3 feet 3 inches, and the same in breadth. The hollow part

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The accuracy of the division here is very remarkable, and could not have occurred by accident.

It agrees in measure with the enclosing tabernacle of the Ark. Maillet says 32 feet by 16 and 19.

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within is in length 6,488 feet, in breadth 2010, and in depth I noticed two inlets in the S. and N. sides of the chamber, opposite each other; the first in breadth 100% feet, and depth 400, evenly cut, and running 6 feet. That on the S. larger, but not so long, and somewhat round."

In this description there are several remarkable things to which I beg leave to call the attention; and first to this passage: "Having past with tapers in our hand this narrow streight, at the further end of it we must serpent-like creep upon our bellies.” Both these circumstances, of passing under a portcullis or pendant stone, and crawling on the belly like a serpent, are descriptions of initiatory rites.

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Other travellers speak of being drawn through this aperture by the heels foremost, which was the mode by which the initiate descended into the Cave of Trophonius. Some moreover speak of putting off their garments at this strait,—another rite of initiation, and an emblem of spirit disencumbered of the "mortal coil" of the flesh; which St. Jude Platonically calls the " ment spotted by the flesh," an expression coinciding with another in Shakspeare: "When we have shuffled off our mortal coil:" and still more with a passage in the Baghvat Geeta: "As man throweth off his old garments and putteth on new, even now shall the soul," &c. It is also worthy remark, that the Hindoos purify themselves by passing through a narrow passage in a pyramidal rock at Malabar, which is held sacred by the worshippers of fire.

But the most apposite representation of this idea may be found upon the Portland Vase, which many reasons lead to consider as the memento of a dramatic mystery. The disencumbered spirit, on his passage to Elysium, is leaving his garment at the gate of death.

Even the immense and ugly bats, which Greaves and others describe as clinging together in the well and passages, are proper appendages of the scene; for Homer describes the immense shoals of ghosts, seen by Ulysses on his descent into a similar Cimmerian cavern, under the similitude of bats.

Of the chief passages it is necessary to remark that the form is cubic. Nor does it appear that this form was chosen on account of the superincumbent weight, because they are not all so, and the caverns supposed to be the dwellings of the priest, without the pyramid of Mycerinus, are of similar construction.

'Derived from Pur, fire.

Greaves supposes it was a form masonically intimating humility. Did the Arabs and the Greeks, when speaking of hieroglyphics in the Pyramid, advert to masonic and architectural emblems, such as the square, the triangle, &c.? If so, the tradition is not widely aberrant from truth. That much of mathematical, numerical, astronomical, and theological knowlege is assignable, and has been assigned to the pyramidal form, cannot be questioned; no more than that the Druids and Freemasons have attached similar ideas to architectural arrangements. In this sense we may entertain the passage of Al Hokm: "He (Saurid) engraved on them all things that were told him by wise men, as also all profound sciences and talismans."

The second gallery is full of such masonic mementos, evidently proving that there was more design than caprice in the arrangement of all the galleries. The roof of that gallery is formed of seven symmetrical steps, the sacred and mystic number before alluded to. They composed the sidereal ladder of the Asiatic Metempsychosis, and the shrine of Horus, or the Sun, on the Bembine Table, is approached by that number: so is the shrine of Bhavani among the Hindoos and Javanese. [See one of the plates of this goddess in Raffles' Java, page 56, vol. ii. and also plate 9, fig. 1.] Did the picture of an initiation, directed by the Hierophant Mercury, wherein fourteen steps lead to the adytum of the Central Sun of the Universe (preserved among the representations which Denon copied from the temple of Dendera), point at the ascending gallery, leading to the Central Adytum of Solar Fire (the Pyramid)? And is not this hint countenanced by the sidereal ladder of TWICE SEVEN PLANETARY zones, surmounted by a triple step, and terminating in the globe, the wing, and the serpent, which is seen on the ceiling of the adytum of the same temple?` At all events, I cannot help thinking, that the square corresponding holes in the "sumptuous and lofty gallery" were intended for some machinery, calculated for the final trial of the initiate in his passage to "Makarian Opsin" of the "midnight Sun." Perhaps a moveable staircase was here employed: or if speculation may be admitted in the interim of austerer analysis, one of those self-instinctive chariots, supposed to be used during initiation (and the initiate appears to have been conveyed down a

2 Greaves is bere driven, as in other cases, to find some other purpose than the burial of a body for these singular structures.

ladder in something similar at the Cave of Trophonius), was raised by pullies, supported by beams, fixed in those holes to the door of the Vestibule.

Observations on the Excerpta from the SCHOLIA of PROCLUS on the CRATYLUS OF PLATO, published by PROFESSOR BOISSONADE; Lipsia,

1820.

PART II. [Continued from No. LIX.]

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Ρ. 72. 1. 12. Οτι του περι θεων λογου τριττου οντος, του μεν φανταστικού, οιος ην ο Ευθύφρων μαχας και επιβουλας θεων αλόγως φανταζομε νος, του δ' επιστημονικού, οιος ην Σωκρατης, του δε δοξαστικού μεταξύ τουτων, οστις και απο της δόξης του ονοματοθέτου επι τας ουσίας των θεων επιστημονικως ανεισι και εχει τινα και προς τον οιησισιφον Ευθυ φρονα φανταστικην κοινωνιαν· κ.τ.λ. Thus also my Ms.; but for

Tμovis, in the latter part of this passage, it is requisite to read ανεπιστημονως. For Proclus here asserts, that the conception of Euthyphron, concerning the gods (see Plato's Euthyphron), was phantastic, or entirely derived from imagination; but that of Socrates scientific; and that the conception which subsists between these two is doxastic, or characterised by opinion. He adds, that this conception ascends from the opinion of the founder of names to the essences of the gods; but that the ascent is unscientific, and possesses a certain phantastic agreement with the false opinion of wisdom with which Euthyphron was inflated.

P. 74. 1. 8 from the bottom: Αλλα πως εσθ' οτε μεν θεοί θνηταις λεγονται μιγνυσθαι, εσθ' οτε δε θεοις θνηται; ή η μεν των θεων προς θεας κοινωνια θεους υφιστησιν ἢ δαίμονας αϊδιους; In this passage my Ms., for the last word aïdious, has rightly aïdies. For Proclus is here speaking of dæmons, xar' ouσixy, and not of those

that subsist, κατα σχεσιν. But all essential, are perpetual, dæ-mons, according to the Orphic and Platonic theology. What Proclus, therefore, says in this place, will be, in English: "How, at one time, are gods said to have connexion with mortal females, and at another time, mortal females with gods? Is it not because the communion of gods with goddesses gives subsistence perpetually to gods or dæmons?" After which, he admirably explains

the manner in which heroes among men are, at one time, said to have a god for their father, and at another, a goddess for their mother. In p. 80. 1. 7. Proclus, speaking of the genera posterior to the gods, which consist, according to the Grecian theology, of angels, dæmons, and heroes, says, τούτων δε τα μεν αγ γελικα προσαγορεύουσιν οι τα θεια δεινοι, κατ' αυτην την υπαρξιν των θεων ισταμένα και το ενοειδες της φυσεως συμμετρον ποιουντα τοις δευτεροις. In this passage, for το ενοειδες της φύσεως, which my Ms. also has, it is necessary to read το ενοειδες της θείας φύσεως. For Proclus says, "that with respect to the genera superior to man, those that are skilled in divine concerns denominate one kind angelic, which is established according to the hyparxis, or essence itself, of the gods, and makes that, which is characterised by unity in a divine nature, to be commensurate to things which have a secondary subsistence.” Ρ. 84. 1. 2. η δ' Ηρα την προοδον και τον εις τα δευτερα πολλαπλασιασμον ενδίδωσι, και εστι ζωοποιος πηγή των λόγων, και των γονιμων δυναμεων μητης. Here, for των λόγων, my Ms. has rightly των ολων. For, as Proclus immediately after observes, Juno is μητρικως οσα ο Ζευς πατρικως. But Jupiter is the demiurgus of wholes (δημιουργος των όλων), i. e. he is the father and fabricator of wholes, and therefore Juno is the vivific fountain of wholes. P. 85. I. 7 from the bottom, περι δε της ζωογονου πήγης Ρέας, εξ ης πασα ζωη θειατε και νοερα και ψυχική και εγκοσμιος απογενναται, ουτως φασιν τα λόγια

Ρειη τοι νοερων Μακαρων πηγη τε ροη τέ.

Παντων γαρ πρωτη δυναμει κολποισιν άφραστοις
Δεξαμενη γενεην, επι παν προχεει τροχαουσαν.

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On this Chaldean oracle the Professor observes : sumsit Taylorus, et inseruit Collectioni Oraculorum Chald. t. 17. p. 246. Ephem. Class. Taylorus δυναμεις scripsit.” Ι substituted in this oracle δυναμεις for δυνάμει, not from having found it in my Ms.; for this has δυναμει ; but because it ap peared to me that this alteration was requisite. For Proclus immediately after adds: Και γαρ την της ζωης απασης απειρον χυσιν υφιστησιν η θεος αυτή, και τας ανεκλειπτους απασας δυνάμεις. Ρ. 86.1. 17. η δε Τηθυς την μονην εντίθησι τοις υπο του Ωκεανου κινουμενοις, και την εδραιοτητα παρέχεται τοις διεγειρομένοις υπ' εκείνου εις την απογεννησιν των δευτέρων, και την καθαρότητα της ουσίας τοις ακμαίως παντα παραγειν εφιεμένοις, κ. τ. λ. In this passage, for ακμαίως my Ms. has αεννάως, which, as Tethys is a fontal deity, is doubtless the true reading.

P. 92. 1. 10 from the bottom, Οτι και τους δια τον εκ της γης

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